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About the OpenAir Projects Connector There are two key components to integrating the OpenAir Projects module with Microsoft® Project--the project plan and project tracking. The project plan The project plan concerns the overall structure and scope of the project--i.e., what tasks need to be accomplished, by whom and by when, etc., and can be set up either in OpenAir's Projects module or in or Microsoft® Project. Basic plan data can be exchanged between OpenAir and Microsoft® via the OpenAir Projects Connector. Ultimately, however, one must choose to control (be able to modify) the project plan in either OpenAir or Microsoft®, but not both--one or the other needs to be the "master": changing elements of the project plan in both OpenAir and Microsoft® can lead to irreconcilable discrepancies, and in some instances, duplicated transactional data. (Please see "Locking a Project" and "Unlocking a Project" for the steps involved in choosing a master for your project plan.) Please note: The OpenAir Projects Connector transfers some, but not all, of the data fields in the project plan between the OpenAir Projects module and Microsoft® Project. Go back to the Projects Connector Index
The second part, project tracking, relies on such user-input data as the hours each project member works on a task, billable time associated with the project, and so on—to monitor the progress of the project, calculating what percentage of a task or phase is complete, and whether or not the project is on schedule and within budget. These data are drawn from such tools such as OpenAir's Timesheets module, in which employees enter the time they spend working on one or more specified projects; from OpenAir's Invoices module, in which a project's billable hours are calculated, etc. The exchange of this kind of transactional data between the OpenAir Projects module and Microsoft® Project is not fully supported by the OpenAir Projects Connector. Go back to the Projects Connector Index
Note: Some items in the overview below are more fully described/explained in the step-by-step instructions that can be found in other sections of the Projects Connector on-line help. a. The OpenAir Projects Connector takes the duration of each task in an imported Microsoft Project and converts it to the "planned hours" field in OpenAir. b. The Projects Connector supports various lag times and different predecessor relationships among the tasks as specified in the Microsoft® Project plan--i.e., FS (Finish-to-Start, meaning that the task preceding another one must be completed before the second one can start), SS (Start-to-Start), FF (Finish-to-Finish), and SF (Start-to-Finish). c. During the course of the import, the Projects Connector lets you map assigned Microsoft® Project resources to OpenAir users; this populates the assigned hours values in OpenAir reports. The Projects Connector takes into account users' schedules in OpenAir. Please note, however, that the Projects Connector does not import scheduling data from Microsoft® Project. d. The Projects Connector does not support fields of work, actual work, remaining work, baseline, work baseline, etc. If you have entered these values (referred to as "transactional data" above) in Microsoft® Project, the Projects Connector does not transfer them to OpenAir. e. If you want to create a baseline in OpenAir, you can do so by drilling down into the project in OpenAir and clicking the "Baseline" link. The Projects Connector does not transfer baseline values from Microsoft® Projects to OpenAir. f. In OpenAir, the tips at the bottom of the Outline view describe the various hours values: • "Planned hours" are the total planned hours from tasks within this project. • "Worked hours" are collected from Timesheets. • "Gap hours" are planned hours minus worked hours. • "Billed hours" are collected from Invoices. • "Estimated hours" are approved hours from Timesheets plus hours remaining entered by the user. • "Remaining hours" are estimated hours minus worked hours. g. If you lock a project in OpenAir when importing from Microsoft® Project, and then need to make modifications in Microsoft® Project, you can use the OpenAir Projects Connector to do another import to update the existing OpenAir project. All basic items pertaining to the project plan--changes to tasks, adding new tasks, etc.--will be updated to the OpenAir project upon import. h. You can export a project from OpenAir to a Microsoft® Projects file, using the Projects Connector; however, it will not update an existing Microsoft® Project, but create a new project. Go back to the Projects Connector Index
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